At last night’s meeting, the Charlotte City Council passed a resolution “to ‘strongly condemn,’ among other things, President Donald Trump’s recent call for four congresswomen to leave the United States and supporters’ recent ‘Send Her Back’ chant during a rally in North Carolina.”
No surprise there. Of course, there is the much, much bigger issue of the president leading the Republican Party into Charlotte next year for its national convention. No surprise here–there was talk of the Queen City backing out of its agreement to host the RNC:
(Charlotte Mayor Vi) Lyles on Monday night acknowledged some in Charlotte want the city to back out of its agreement to host the RNC. Such a move was not up for a vote, but Lyles said council members in recent days asked the city attorney to look into whether Charlotte could back out.
But City Attorney Patrick Baker said no legal option exists for Charlotte to unilaterally end its agreement to host the RNC. There could be an option to dissolve the agreement if there was a “material” breach of contract, Baker said. However, he told council members there was no evidence of that happening so far.
Otherwise, Baker said, if the council breaks its agreement with the RNC, “You would suffer the financial penalties … And you should expect you would be sued.”
Who knows what Charlotte was thinking when they extended the invitation in the first place, given the cloud of controversy continually hanging over Trump. Perhaps they thought he would no longer be president in 2020? Whatever—the convention is going to test Charlotte’s mettle as a big-time city. It will be interesting to watch,
